D-Rank

"It rained a few days ago, and mushrooms grew on the beams of the warehouse back home. I saw they were growing well, so I picked them all and brought them over." Jiang Weiguo walked to the kitchen door, opened the burlap sack he brought, and took out the contents one by one. "Wild pheasant, wild rabbit, muntjac meat, wild boar leg, all cured. Jiankang, put these away for me. Tea tree mushrooms, wild ones, dried. Perfect for making soup for you. And this."

Having dealt with mushrooms for over half a month, Jiang Feng recognized at a glance that the bag in Jiang Weiguo's hand contained shiitake mushrooms.

Coincidentally, Jiang Huiqin was also making soup with shiitake mushrooms.

"Make soup with this, don't add any other random ingredients." Jiang Weiguo placed the bag on the table, and the plump mushrooms rolled out.

"How do I make it..." Jiang Feng asked blankly.

"You've been making soup for over half a month and you're asking me how to make it?" Jiang Weiguo scolded, his voice full of energy. "Do I need to teach you how to make this? Just add water and salt, can't you do that? Do I need to hold your hand and teach you this?"

Jiang Jiankang was all too familiar with this scene. When he and his brothers were learning to cook as children, the old man would scold them like this. As long as they had the nerve to ask specifically how to do something, the old man would teach them hand-in-hand while yelling.

However, things unfolded beyond his expectations.

"Oh." Jiang Feng came to his senses and took the shiitake mushrooms out of the bag.

The shiitake mushrooms hadn't been washed since they were picked. The roots were still covered in dirt, and the folds were dirty. It would take some time to process them.

Jiang Feng cut off the roots of the shiitake mushrooms, soaked them in water, and carefully washed and rubbed each one. He washed them three times, changing the water three times.

Then he started to boil the soup.

Since Jiang Huiqin was also using shiitake mushrooms, the shiitake mushroom soup was actually the soup Jiang Feng had been making the most recently. He had tried almost every combination he could think of. Except for the first time when he only added scallions to the soup, the other times the ingredients were so rich that one would doubt if it was shiitake mushroom soup.

There was no other way; the shiitake mushroom flavor was too strong.

Following Jiang Weiguo's instructions, Jiang Feng added no ingredients other than shiitake mushrooms. He even only added salt as seasoning.

Just like countless times before when he was making soup, Jiang Feng stood by the pot, watching the water boil, the ingredients tumble, skimming off the foam, and stirring slowly.

Jiang Weiguo watched from the side, a faint smile appearing on his face.

Jiang Jiankang was stunned when he saw the old man smile.

It wasn't that Jiang Weiguo disliked smiling, but Jiang Jiankang rarely saw him smile when others were cooking. Given Jiang Weiguo's standards, it was already high praise if the younger generation wasn't scolded while cooking in front of him. The last time Jiang Jiankang saw the old man smile in the kitchen was when he had improved the recipe for Kung Pao Chicken.

That was also the only dish he had ever improved himself.

The soup was almost ready.

Jiang Feng had a feeling that this was the most successful pot of soup he had made recently.

The shiitake mushroom flavor was still rich, but not overpowering.

That pot of soup on the stove clearly told Jiang Feng:

I am shiitake mushroom soup, this is my flavor.

[A pot of shiitake mushroom soup with virtually no flaws]

Jiang Feng took a sip.

Indeed, there were no flaws.

It was just shiitake mushroom soup.

Just ordinary shiitake mushroom soup.

Ordinary, and very delicious.

More delicious than all the previous mushroom heads.

Jiang Weiguo didn't taste it. He just looked at the soup in the pot, then at Jiang Feng's expression, and nodded with satisfaction. He turned to Jiang Jiankang and asked, "How many more dishes do you have to stir-fry?"

Jiang Jiankang, who was stir-frying, almost tossed the Kung Pao Chicken out of the wok. "This one, and the minced eggplant."

"I'll stir-fry. You go get the pork I sent out to thaw. Two pounds of pork belly, four pounds of ribs, and some lean meat." Jiang Weiguo took the wok and continued stir-frying the Kung Pao Chicken. Jiang Jiankang hurried to the cold storage to get the meat the old man had requested.

Jiang Feng was making Clear Soup with Bird's Nest Slices.

He made one dish a day, and every step was already deeply ingrained in his memory.

The last dish of eggplant was an additional order from Liu Qian.

She had run 800 meters in her physical education class that afternoon. As usual, after ordering two dishes, she felt it wasn't enough and added another order of minced eggplant. She had just mixed the last bit of soup from the Stir-fried Tomatoes and Eggs with rice and was now chatting with her viewers in the live stream, her mouth idle.

Her live stream now had over a thousand stable followers, and many active viewers. They had all gotten used to her suffocating camera angles, which had gradually become her unique characteristic. After signing a contract with the live streaming platform, she could earn a few hundred yuan a month. Although it wasn't even enough to cover her meals, she enjoyed it.

"Annoying streamer ate a lot today!" Yan Family Xiao Yu's prominent yellow bullet comment floated from the top of her phone.

She had eaten three bowls of rice and two large plates of dishes today. For a professional mukbang streamer, this wasn't much, but compared to her usual appetite, it was indeed quite a bit more.

"Yeah, I had P.E. class this afternoon, so I burned a lot of energy and ate a lot!"

"Annoying streamer, why haven't I seen your Club President lately?" Someone still remembered Jiang Feng.

"The Club President has been in the back kitchen making soup every day lately, and it tastes terrible. All the soup sent out recently was made by him. I think I could make better soup than him. Yesterday's mushroom, vegetable, and tofu soup was the worst!" Liu Qian said indignantly. "The porridge the Club President makes is quite good, but I didn't expect his soup to be so bad."

"But, I really haven't seen the Club President for a while. He hasn't been attending club activities lately."

A wave of "hahaha" scrolled across the screen.

A moment later, Ji Yue came over with the eggplant.

Liu Qian sniffed and exclaimed, "So fragrant."

Yan Family Xiao Yu quickly sent a bullet comment: "Annoying streamer says everything smells good."

"No, the eggplant tastes different today, it's especially fragrant!" Liu Qian said with a serious expression.

Ji Yue brought the eggplant in front of Liu Qian. "I just saw that Grandpa Jiang Feng stir-fried this eggplant, and it smelled really good."

"I also heard his grandpa say that he was cooking tonight's dinner."

Liu Qian immediately understood and offered to stay and help, and also to mooch a meal.

The minced meat eggplant, fresh out of the wok, was still steaming and glistening with oil, looking incredibly delicious.

"Why do I think today's eggplant looks particularly delicious (ω)"

"This eggplant looks great."

"It's so oily, it looks terrible."

"The annoying streamer's eyes are glued to it."

Liu Qian looked at her phone, picked up a piece of eggplant with her chopsticks, and put it in her mouth, exclaiming, "Oh my god, this is so delicious!"

On the other side, Jiang Feng's Clear Soup with Bird's Nest Slices was also finished.

"Ding, congratulations to the player for completing the improvement of Clear Soup with Bird's Nest Slices (Imitation)."

Without minding that Jiang Weiguo and Jiang Jiankang were still processing pork nearby, Jiang Feng opened his status panel.

[Clear Soup with Bird's Nest Slices (Imitation) D-rank] [Improved]:

Creator: Jiang Huiqin
Improver: Jiang Feng
Improvement Evaluation: Return to simplicity, the great way is simple. Using the simplest ingredients to create the original taste.
Dish Details: A dish whose ingredients and seasoning are quite poor, but due to Jiang Huiqin's excellent cooking skills and the special environment, it became very precious. It became a light in Li Mingyi's darkest moments, supporting him to live on. No special buffs.
Number of times per day: 1. (1/1)

It was improved successfully?

And it's still D-rank?

Jiang Feng could hardly believe it, and didn't even dare to taste it.

So simple?

How is that possible!

This barely counts as repaying the debt from the last two days (ω」∠) Good night everyone!